That habit came in handy when a commercial events coordinator asked the
Eugene, Ore.-based florist if she’d consider arranging flowers for Sir
Elton John’s dressing room at his Feb. 17 concert.



Before you could say "Tiny Dancer," Lyons was
already mapping out the choreography that would allow her staff to meet the last-minute request.



Although the coordinator didn’t say exactly how he found her shop, Lyons
has since learned that online research and other vendors’
recommendations played a role.



“It was quite the mad-cap week,” Lyons said. The initial call came on
Monday, “when all our phones were ringing with last-minute Valentine’s
orders,” and the conversation volleyed
back and forth until Wednesday evening, “when we got to the final go,”
she said.



Once given the go, the Dandelions crew got specific instructions about
exactly how to proceed. Use only 4-inch clear cubes with clear marbles
and pavé-style roses, free of all foliage, “just touching” the top of
the marbles and arranged with their stems parallel to each other; two
should be all white roses and five should be all red roses.



The floral arrangements
accented the lounge area, where event planners had set up the star's
personal dresser, end tables, coffee tables, personal items, photos and
memorabilia.



Dandelions was also assigned a bouquet that had no specific recipe, just
that it be “bright and bold,” no taller than 36 inches and free of
carnations, chrysanthemums, lilies, twigs and foliage. For inspiration,
Dandelions designer Julianne Harris perused “Elton John’s Flower
Fantasies,” a book penned by
John’s former personal florists. “One of our wholesalers is a huge fan
and loaned us her copy,” Lyons said. From her research, Harris selected
roses, tulips, gerberas, amaranthus, sunflowers, freesia and delphinium.



Although no employees spoke with Sir Elton, they did receive his message
of thanks through four autographed tickets to the sold-out concert,
which he ended by holding up a white rose a Dandelions employee handed
him.



More than just a “great
night,” the job gave Lyons an excellent opportunity to keep flowers in
the headlines after Valentine's Day. “Following the great training from
Jenni Sparks [SAF's vice president of marketing], we contacted one of
our local news stations to share our behind-the-scenes action,” Lyons
said, referring to a story hook she learned at the PR Bootcamp
during SAF Palm Springs 2007. She rightly assumed the news
team would be looking for angles to cover the concert — and got a
reporter and camera crew over that evening for a live remote story with
the local NBC affiliate.



“The reporter even put on our oversized ‘Elton John’ flower glasses that
our staff wore for fun,” Lyons said. “In the end, it was another
opportunity to put flowers in the news.”